Kala Tuner

Down Up Dick

Down Up Dick

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Does anyone have a Kala tuner? I bought one for $20, and it's pretty much worthless. The salesman really saw me comin'.

It seems that if the peghead is too thick, the tuner won't measure. Also, it lights up green when one's uke is in tune, but it takes a bit of aiming and turning the peg to get it to turn green, if it ever does.

Luckily, i have an old, workhorse Snark (about $8) that really works. :eek:ld:
 
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My biggest problem with the Kala tuner is that they seem to grow legs. About the green light, I look at the digital dial that sets me know sharp or flat.
 
When I bought my Kala Tenor from MGM a few years back, he included one of the Kala tuners.

it is completely, and totally generic - I've seen at least 6 different brand names on that same tuner.

Mine has always worked fine - and still does - but I initially preferred the Snark that I shelled out $30 for (eventually buying a ton of snarks for about $20 each), until they all started breaking at the same place on every one...

I've got the D'Adderio/Planet Waves micro tuners now - 2/$20 most of the time from Musician's friend, and at that price I have one on every one of my ukuleles, and a few of the reverb tuners (haven't even unpacked them yet). I've also got a couple of Fishman FT-1 tuners, but I find them too big for the ukulele. Might work fine on a guitar, though.


-Kurt​
 
Probably the first clip on tuner I had for ukulele and also the worst. The problem was with the way the screen reads - just not enough segments in the display to be anywhere near accurate enough for me. Pretty flimsy too and the battery cover worked loose quite quickly.

These days I tend to use D'Addario clips on the fly, but if I want super accuracy I go with a Peterson Strobe - insanely good!
 
I got the Kala free - the button battery was good......

I like Snark as it reacts quickly but the ball and socket joint breaks easily. At the moment I use the BOSS TU10 pricey, but accurate, quick easy to read.
 
I went up to get some new strings for my guitar a couple of years ago, and noticed a "Image" tuner in the music shop. It was $16 but I have always had trouble tuning so I bought it. After I bought my first Uke, I fell in love with it. The Image is like a lot of tuners I've seen on E-Bay for`$5. I had a Boss acoustic tuner but the Image is a clip on and folds away so it doesn't look like a wart on the head stock. About a year ago I bought a Snark with a metronome and like it but it does look like a wart on the head stock. All but two of my ukes have built in tuner/equalizers but I use my Image or Snark cause they only need one battery and the built in tuners eat batteries in about two weeks!
 
Hands down the best tuner I have ever had is the app on my iPhone. I have checked it against more expensive less user friendly tuners and it has always had me dead on. It's called guitar tuner. It has pre-set tuning schemes for guitar and Uke or you can just use the chromatic tuner.
 
Here is where I have to recommend Reverb's $4 tuner. Disclaimer: they donated 200 in "prior packaging" to my ukulele program. I have seen two break (snap) from being stepped on; sometimes they stop working and you have to open them up, take out the battery, and put it back in. They also seem to tune the Watermen better than the Snarks and other models that I had.

Oh...and Snark has a new model now that, of course, costs more than the old one.

I also have a couple D'Addario in-hole tuners (hard to get to), and may look at those micros in the future, just for "looks" on my more expensive ukuleles.
 
I've had the Kala tiedyed (so easy to find) for several years, among others, never had a problem with it.
 
Kayak Jim said:
I have one I got with the "player pack" KA-S when I first took up the uke about 5 years ago.

Still works perfectly.
Click to expand...

This pretty much applies to me too, though I am only closing in on two years of playing and I got a MK C back then.
I also have a non-clip-on electronic tuner, that I bought for my guitar once. It might be more accurate, but clip on is easier to work with.
I tried installing several tuner apps on my phone, none of them were even close to working for me. As in it would be impossible for me to tune any instrument with it, not just cumbersome.

If so many hold the Kala clip on in low esteem, perhaps I am only content because I never tried better.
Or perhaps the have more than one supplier of generic tuners that they print their name on.
 
I'm not sure that we're all talking about the same Kala tuner.

Mine is small, rectangular and black. The printing on the front is red; the key shows bright green when one finally gets it in tune. It measures the keys of C, D and "Chromatic", whatever that is . . . It does not include a metronome.
I think i wasted $20 for it, but i might have bought something else with it.

I have exchanged the battery with the one in my Snark. It is now semi retired. :eek:ld:
 
I just noticed on E-Bay this.

2-PACK D'ADDARIO CT-12 NS MICRO CHROMATIC HEADSTOCK TUNER $19.98
Click to expand...

I almost sprang for them but had just bought a new case for my new Ohana tenor and I'm tapped out on Uke money now.
 
$20 ouch! All these ukulele brands that have there "own" tuner are just rebranding somebody else's cheapo tuner. I went to a tuner company (Korg) to get a tuner that works really well and only costs about 50% more.

-- Gary
 
I found the same tuner (unbranded) as the D'Addario micro ones on AliExpress for a couple of dollars. A lot of these simple tuners seem to be made in China and rebranded when sent around the world.
 
sculptor said:
$20 ouch! All these ukulele brands that have there "own" tuner are just rebranding somebody else's cheapo tuner. I went to a tuner company (Korg) to get a tuner that works really well and only costs about 50% more.

-- Gary
Click to expand...

I use a Korg too for my other instruments, and it works fine. I just bought the Snark for it's convenience.

I dunno why i bought the Kala. Impulse, i guess, or maybe just a really sharp salesman. :eek:ld:
 
Down Up Dick said:
I'm not sure that we're all talking about the same Kala tuner.

Mine is small, rectangular and black. The printing on the front is red; the key shows bright green when one finally gets it in tune. It measures the keys of C, D and "Chromatic", whatever that is . . . It does not include a metronome.
I think i wasted $20 for it, but i might have bought something else with it.

I have exchanged the battery with the one in my Snark. It is now semi retired. :eek:ld:
Click to expand...

Not the same one.
Mine is also black, but with very rounded corners and white print.
It has settings for Guitar, Bass, Violin, Ukulele and Chromatic. I only use the chromatic setting.
It has a blue background that I believe turn green when in tune.

I can't be shocked that the tuner included in a beginner pack is just a random whatever they could get their hands on, with a logo added. If I had bought it separately I would probably give it more thoughts. However, mine works for me.
 
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